About ECCO
Karl Toosbuy was the founder of ECCO. He had a dream of creating his own shoe factory. As a trained shoemaker, he became at an early age responsible for operating a shoe factory in Copenhagen. But because the dream was to have his own factory, Karl and his wife Birthe took the big decision and moved from Copenhagen to the small southern Jutland town called Bredebro.
Bredebro became the city partly because Karl were looking for reliable hardworking employees from the country side and partly because Bredebro had vacant premises and was located close to the German border and all the bigger foreign countries.
On April 1, 1963, the factory opened and from the very beginning ECCO had employed 74 employees.
Direct injection technology was originally intended for cheap mass-produced shoes, but Karl took this production method to a completely different level and ensured both a high quality combined with mass production. A production method that with the use of quality PU material and new spraying technology could provide a unique comfort and very high quality.
Back in 1980, Karl manages to make the first women's softshoes with sprayed PU directly on the leather shaft. This was the start of the success that ECCO has today worldwide.
ECCO has currently factories in Thailand, China, Indonesia, Portugal and (some) in Denmark. All factories are immediately built up in the same way, but focus on different product types.
In terms of sales, ECCO is today presented all over the world. In 1994, ECCO was named "Footwear Company of the Year" in the United States – an effort that since has contributed to ECCO being a super recognized brand throughout Asia today.
Today, ECCO is one of the world's largest leather manufacturers and sells leather to many other shoe brands and for other types of products. ECCO’s tannery in Dongen Holland is among the world's most advanced leather factory and leader in the design of new types of leather.
In 2004, Karl Toosbuy passed away after a long periode with illness. Today, his daughter Hanni Toosbuy Kasprzak has taken over the leadership of the company together with her children André and Anna. Today ECCO is a company with over 20,000 employees.